India moving close to victory as West Indies are 195 for 8. However, there have been quite a few instances when players from the country have shone with both bat and ball during matches won or drawn by India outside Asia. It was no different from one day to the other as the visitors looked in command and were seldom challenged.
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Ravichandran Ashwin’s 7 got 83 is his second best figures in his career and it ensured that India makes a 1-0 lead in the test match series of four matches which gave us a huge victory of 92 runs and an innings. Ashwin took seven wickets.
West Indies’ demise appeared imminent at that point, but an unexpected lower-order resistance frustrated the tourists, Carlos Brathwaite (51 not out) and Devendra Bishoo (45) putting on an innings-high 95 for the ninth wicket.
Shami had been sidelined from global cricket since the 2015 World Cup due to a knee injury but he put those woes behind him with a four-wicket haul in the opening Test in Antigua. Virat gave me a long spell after lunch today and I was working on my rhythm with Anil bhai as well.
He went down on his knees and kissed the turf as retired West Indies great Viv Richards, after whom the venue in North Sound is named, joined in the applause from the stands. He frustrated the Indian bowlers for almost 70 minutes, and in this interim, saw off the likes of Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Shami without much discomfort. It was an allround performance from Virat Kohli’s men, who left the Windies team bamboozled.
Having made 113 with the bat in India’s 566 for eight declared, the offspinner tore into West Indies’ batting line-up in Antigua.
Enforcing a follow on, the West Indies suffered a huge blow when they lost the in-form Kraigg Braithwaite for the second time in the day. India seemed to let up and that provided the opportunity for Bishoo and Brathwaite build a partnership.
“It has taken more than five years for me to repeat it (take a five-for) outside the sub-continent”, he said. Dowrich meanwhile got to his second Test half-century off 75 balls, even as runs started flowing owing to the hardness of the new ball.
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His demise came just after Jermaine Blackwood fell for his second duck of the match and Ashwin added the wickets of Roston Chase and Jason Holder to turn the match into a formality.
